Classes and Quartus

Unlike some settings, the PC classes as such are not completely aligned with the actual in-universe people and their powers. Instead, they represent packages of features, powers, and traits that are suited for specific adventuring archetypes. Generally, priests you meet are not clerics--even those called clerics are not PC-class clerics. Despite this, the analogies are close enough to be meaningful.

Each class and its analogues is associated with one or more of four power sources (or approaches to power, more specifically):

• Arcane : manipulating the ambient anima to directly create effects. Most associated with wizards, although artificers, bards, and sorcerers also utilize this approach.
• Discipline : Practitioners of this path learn to enhance their own physical abilities and create "supernatural" effects through training, practice, and discipline. Fighters, monks, and rogues are most associated with this approach, although artificers, paladins and rangers train their powers.
• Planar : Practitioners of this path draw power from sources beyond the Mortal plane--from the gods, from elemental creatures, from the basic structure of the universe, or from fiends and other ascendant beings. Clerics and paladins are the obvious followers of this path, but warlocks follow it in their own way (that overlaps with the arcane path in some measure). Planar warriors follow this path but draw from the planes themselves.
• Primal : Followers of this path draw on the kami and other powers of the Mortal plane as well as from the nature of the elemental planes (as opposed to the major sentient beings of those planes). Druids, barbarians, and rangers are most associated with this path.

Artificers

Note: use of this class by players requires access to the published book in which their stats are found.

Magical artifice is the youngest of the magics, having arisen as a consequence of the Fourth Wish only 44 years ago. Unlike the magitech engineering of previous eras, artificing is inherently personal and idiosyncratic. Unlike technology, which anyone can use if trained, the products of an artificer's art can only be used by those he or she entrusts with them; in essence, they're imbued with a portion of the artificer's soul. And no two artificers are entirely alike. Artificers tend towards building and making, creating and imbuing objects with power.

Artificers are rare in the Federated Nations, being mostly found among the goblins and dragonborn of Byarmarsh and the dwarves of Shinevog.

Extra Archetypes

None yet

Barbarians

Primary Approach: Discipline/Primal

Associating barbarians with tribes and uncivilized groups would miss most of the population with access to primal rage. Drawing from the ambient anima via their emotions, barbarians (often called by names relating to their archetype) unconsciously use that anima to reinforce their physical form, increasing their resilience and strength. Visually, many (especially the more fury-driven ones) literally swell with anger when they call on this primal power. This call on power most commonly first occurs in a state of anger (hence the name Rage), but as barbarians gain in power they may learn to draw on other sources--their ancestors, the kami of beasts, the elements, or even tapping into the inherent power of zealotry (becoming something akin to a paladin).

In the Federated Nations, barbarians are found wherever blood runs hot and emotions get inflamed. Wyrmhold has made a particular point of seeking out those who break the wall of primal power and training them, incorporating them into its army as their own specialized units. Those of the Dawnspire are particularly associated with those barbarians who choose the path of fanaticism.

Archetypes

• Path of the Primal Incarnate
• Path of the Whirling Blade (WIP)

Bards

Primary Approach: Arcane (harmonic)

The oldest of the spell-casting methods, harmonic magic was taught to the spoken races by agents of Leviathan back in the First Age. To this day, it is found throughout all peoples. Many tribal "shamans" use harmonic magic to heal their tribe members, curse the disobedient (or enemy), and bolster their own morale. But Leviathan's gift was not without strings--embedded in the patterns of this musical magic is a compulsion to learn and explore. Bards tend to be wanderers, driven from place to place by an unconscious wanderlust. As a result, bards also tend to be gifted jacks-of-all-trades.

Unlike most other arcanists, harmonic magic practitioners can heal others--their songs align the anima within the hearer and cause it to draw in ambient anima for healing. Conversely, bards find it comparatively easy to affect the minds of living creatures rather than their bodies directly. They are not as talented with creating energy manifestations (such as fire or lightning) as many others, although those with power can "cheat" and learn patterns that mimic those effects quite closely.

In the Federated Nations, bards are most associated with communities along the water, whether lakes or the sea. Byssia is home to many, as is the Serpent Dominion and Rauviz and Crisial Kingdom. There is a legacy of bardic magic in the Holy Kaelthian Republic, although that legacy has dimmed since the breakup of the Council Lands when most of the bards at the Granite-Flame Academy moved to the other successor states to avoid the religious fanaticism growing in Kaelthia.

Archetypes

None yet

Clerics

Primary Approach: Planar (Divine)

Clerical magic is one of the newest forms of magic, tracing back to the Third Wish. Clerics are chosen by one of the Congregation to serve as their agent. This selection process requires more than just faith--many are faithful but remain without power. It requires a nature that resonates with that of the Great Mechanism and the god in question, allowing the god to connect the cleric to the Great Mechanism more directly than most. Clerics have drawing rights directly at that conduit, within limits set by their closeness to their god. As the gods (in the present era) are denied the ability to directly apply power to the Mortal realm, they rely on clerics as their first-run agents.

Most priests are not clerics, and most clerics are not members of official clergies. Priests are trained and some gain power from that training (much like a warlock), while some are born to that power (like a sorcerer). Their powers are restricted in scope, while a cleric has access to a wide range of powers, including those of types that their patron god does not oversee. Clerics can lose their power (unlike priests), but the traits that make one a suitable cleric are fungible enough that often a different god, more suited to the cleric's nature, will pick up the connection instead. Relationships between the clergy and the clerics are often strained--the clerics are the direct agents of divinity and so disregard things like hierarchy and process. They tend to wander about, driven by the will of their god as they understand it.

Setting notes: Due to the nature of animating undead, animate dead is not on the cleric spell list in Quartus. Clerics must be clerics of specific deities, not of philosophies or ideas.

Archetypes

None yet

Druids

Primary Approach: Primal

Druids are the premier negotiators with the kami big and small. Originating with the Second Wish, druidic magic involves understanding the wishes and desires of these beings and learning to make deals with them. Generally, those deals are transactional--the druid feeds them a small bit of anima from their soul in exchange for the kami using them as a channel to create a magical effect. If one could see the kami as lights, most druids would look like they had a cloud of fireflies surrounding them at all times. This is also why wearing armor made of large sheets of hammered metal is distasteful for druids--the worked metal is "dead" to kami, creating a "typing with boxing gloves" effect on the druid.

Druids are most common in Byssia, where the Dreamgrove is a major influence in government. There are two other major circles (and countless smaller ones): the Lady's Grove in Crisial Kingdom and the Pactum Grove in Dreamshore. However, most of the ihmisi tribes are affiliated with druidic practitioners, as are many of the goblin tribes of the Windwalker Confederacy. Druidism is rarest among the dwarves of the Ulan Confederacy and in the Holy Kaelthian Republic; the first because the people are bound to their metal-smithing and mining ways (which many druids find unnatural and repellant) and the other due to the fanatic religiosity of the people which beats nature into submission to the people's consensus.

Archetypes

• Circle of the Spirit Talkers

Fighters

Primary Approach: Discipline

Ah the fighter. The most "basic" class, the one that seems to apply everywhere. Not all warriors or skilled combatants are Fighters. Fighters train with their weapons and their armor to the point that they can draw in anima from their surroundings and condense it into their souls. With this anima, they perform arts of weapon-skill that most cannot rival. Whether a blur of speed, reserves of strength that let them carry on beyond normal limits, or arrows made of magic, all these arts draw on the stored anima.

Fighters are equally prevalent throughout the land. Crisial of the Four Towers has a well-known training facility, as does the Dawnspire (if you're into fighting for a religious cause). Zhapai Karmap is home to the Great Arena, where gladiators of many nations flock to display their skill and walk the razor's edge and dance the dance of blood. Many of these are fighters.

Archetypes

• Rune Bearer
• Weapon Master
• Aegis Seeker (WIP)

Monks

Primary approach: Discipline

Not all monks come from monasteries, and not all residents of the monasteries are monks. But among those residents, and among the wandering adventurers, are some who have honed their bodies and souls into weapons. They draw on their own anima (calling it ki) to move faster, hit harder, and create supernatural effects.

Four great monasteries exist in western Noefra--

• Tysh -- located on a mountaintop near Fuar Uulan, this monastery was founded immediately after the Cataclysm. Of the four it is the least worldly, the most traditional. Here monks and acolytes train and learn in silence, honing their capacity for endurance. It is dedicated to Korokonolkom, Lord of Silent Endurance.
• Tyom -- The training ground for the Handmaidens of the Jungle of Fangs, this monastery in southern Asai'ka is a combination monastery, finishing school, and assassin training ground. Very little quiet contemplation, unless its of your next victim. Those trained here are often involved deeply in the politics of the former Stone Throne, but usually behind the scenes.
• Quietus -- The youngest of the four, this monastery just outside of Lyodnoir was founded by one of the Catalysts. Unlike the rest, it focuses predominantly on the martial arts and teaches all who can handle the training, whether noble or common.
• Home of the Elements -- The wandering policemen and religious figures of Byssia train here deep in the Byssian Highlands, along with elementalists and sages. Here the focus is on honoring and revering the kami and the elemental lords.

Beyond the monasteries, there are many masters throughout the world who teach students the ways of the monk.

Archetypes

• None yet

Paladins

Primary approach: Planar/Discipline

Paladins, also called Oathsworn, draw power from the nature of their Oath and Cause. Many swear oaths, but only those whose souls are as the mountains, firm, unshakeable in their belief, can draw power from it. Like clerics, they draw their spells from the Great Mechanism. Unlike clerics, they are not tied to patron deities, although many are religious. Instead, their very faith in their Cause ties them to the Mechanism and grants power. This faith, although their armor and sword, is also their weakness. A paladin who has lost sight of his Cause and wavers in his Oath has no power until he returns to his cause or finds a new one. Zealotry is a common affliction among the Oathsworn.

Some Oathsworn who fall from their Cause turn to demonic power to fill the void left behind. Although they are called Oathbreaker, they have gone well beyond simply forsaking their Oath and Cause. They have dedicated themselves to the Oblivion Gate and have become the foes of all that exists. The most powerful of these, once they fall, become the dread Death Knights. Oathbreakers are not suitable for player characters.

Archetypes

• Oath of Fanaticism (WIP)

Planar Warriors

Primary approach: Discipline/Primal (Elemental)

See Planar Warrior.

Rangers

Primary Approach: Discipline/Primal

Rangers are those who, like druids, connect with the primal spirits of the land. Unlike druids, who often consider themselves the emissaries and advocates of nature untouched by mortal hands, rangers walk the balance. They often take the side of mortals against the wilder forces of nature, while taming the excesses of mortal despoliation. Their contracts with kami are longer-lasting than those of druids--they tend to embed those faithful spirits into their equipment and even animals that they train. Often called hunters, wanderers, scouts, or other such names, rangers don't fit any one mold very well.

There are no significant organizations of rangers in Noefra as of 250 AC.

Archetypes

None yet

Rogues

Primary approach: Discipline/Primal (Shadow)

Like fighters, rogues are found across the land. But not all cut-purses, killers-for-hire, and general criminals are rogues. Rogues have connected with Shadow via their training and talents, drawing on its power to hide, enhance their abilities, and perform seemingly impossible feats. Not all rogues are criminals either--many of those who merely want to find things that others wish to hide, who prefer precision over brute force, whose thoughts are twisty find their way into the life of a rogue.

Most major cities have "thieves guilds" or other organized crime syndicates, while even most of the smaller towns have circles of those who wish to avoid the detection of the law. Some notable such organizations are

• the Benevolent Organization of Asai'ka. This group of both "honest" citizens and criminals rules the nation from the shadows.
• the Dimwit Syndicate, centered in Tarad'am
• the Mockers, formerly of Kaelthia but now centered mostly in Rauviz City (but with a presence throughout the Successor States)

Archetypes

• Mage Hunter (WIP)

Sorcerers

Primary approach: Arcane

The earliest of the mortal arcanists, sorcerers (those born to magic) make up a large fraction of all the spell-casters throughout Quartus. The dominant thread connecting these disparate individuals is that they awoke to power that was not theirs, power from their bloodline, power from exposure to wild magic, power bred into them by cruel experiments or passed down via prophecy. They have spells embedded in their souls which they must learn to control.

As disparate as sorcerers are, there are no sorcerer-focused organizations. They do tend to associate with other arcane organizations such as the Granite-Flame Academy in Kaelthia, however.

Archetypes

None yet

Warlocks

Primary approach: Arcane / Planar

Where sorcerers are born with power and wizards study to gain power, warlocks (the Beholden) gain arcane power by a connection to an extra-planar entity. Via this connection, their souls are attuned to magic and they are taught specific spells. Of all the arcanists, warlocks are probably the most common--most "priests" are actually Beholden rather than Chosen (like clerics). Trained in churches, in cults, or awakened by dreams of strange writhing figures, warlocks are varied. Most do not call themselves warlocks or Beholden--those names are reserved for the more cultish (devil-worshiping or demon-ridden) folks. The "holy men" generally call themselves priests or servants. Any priest of an Ascendant other than a member of the Congregation is actually Beholden.

Archetypes

None yet

Wizards

Primary approach: Arcane

The second-oldest form of arcana, wizardry got its start with the First Wish, when rune magic and true sorcery were melded into one force that mortals could manage. Mastered first by the aelvar, this is the favored form of magic of their gwerin descendants. Systematized and regularized, wizardry is the only form of arcana generally taught as such. While they'd love to tell you that they truly understand the laws of magic, most wizards learn by rote and by memory spells that were created long ago and passed down in tomes or from master to apprentice.

Major schools in western Noefra:

• The Granite-Flame Academy in Kaelthia
• The Phoenix Tower in Crisial City
• The College of War Magic in Byarsha
• The New School in Shinevog

Archetypes

• Paracausality